Hell Hath No Fury Like Southie Residents Scorned Over Parking

One indisputable truth is that parking is a contentious issue in this town. (Last winter, Bostonist's car was keyed when we parked in a spot around the block from our house with no lawn chair in it (and this was after we graciously dug out three spots on our corner and reserved none of them!). Even commenting on parking has brought the wrath of other bloggers upon Bostonist's head.) Another truism is that whatever the city does, South Boston residents will not be happy about it. As the Globe gently says, Southie "zealously guards its independence and consistently resents the involvement of city government." So expect some tense resident vs. tow-truck battles in the months to come now that Southie is getting resident parking restrictions.

The last time Southie residents were up in arms about the city's flexing its legal might was last winter, when there was a brief attempt to discourage the reserving of spots excavated from the snow. (Brilliantly, residents combined two grievances against the city into one awesome protest, blocking off their spots with items, like refrigerators and used boilers, that trash haulers usually refuse to collect.) In that instance, Bostonist felt no sympathy for the residents (we hate the reserved-winter-spots tradition with a passion hot enough to melt snow), but this time, we think the angry Southie-ites are pointing out a real problem: Having two or three designated visitor spots per block doesn't work at all in crowded neighborhoods. Practically every time we take Baby Bostonist to Mother-in-law Bostonist's place in the South End, we find the visitor spots full while resident spots sit unused, forcing us to risk the wrath of the meter maids just to drop off the youngster so we can go see a movie with Mrs. Bostonist he can bond with his grandma. In contrast, when we want to see a movie at the Kendall the baby to get quality time with his great aunt in her equally crowded Cambridge neighborhood, we never have a problem because we can park anywhere with a visitor pass. So why can't Boston take a cue from its neighbors to the north and provide visitor passes instead of designated visitor spots, at least in the most congested areas? Is Bostonist missing something?

Photo: As the space around the bumpers makes clear, this car is not parked in Southie.